Table 1.

Overview of included studies

Service	Author (year)	Study type	Study aims	Demographic characteristics captured
				Gender	Age	Ethnicity	Sexual orientation	IMD
eSexual Health Clinic (eSHC)	Aicken et al 201851	Qualitative interviews	To understand use and experience of the eSHC to inform future evaluation and refinement	Binary	18–35	✓	✓	–
	Estcourt et al 201749	Quasi-experimental	To assess the safety and feasibility of eSHC	Binary	18+	✓	✓	–
	Gibbs et al 201838	Mixed-methods evaluation of quasi-experimental study	To evaluate the eSHC results service	–	–	–	–	–
Freetest.me	Dolan and Rudisill 201439	Quasi-experimental	To explore the effect on chlamydia test return rates of non-cash financial incentives, and the influence of socioeconomic status	Binary	16–24	✓	–	Mean score
Letstalkaboutit	Gasmelsid et al 202134	Observational	To determine whether online screening is accessible by those patients most at need by comparing the demographics and number of asymptomatic chlamydial infections detected online and in clinic	Binary	<25, 25+	✓	✓	–**
National Chlamydia Screening Programme (NCSP)	Woodhall et al 20125	Observational	To describe and evaluate access to the NCSP’s online chlamydia testing service	Binary	15–24	✓	–	✓
North East Essex Primary Care Trust (PCT)	Bracebridge et al 201240	Observational	To quantify uptake and test-positivity rates, identify factors associated with screening and compare costs of the intervention with the NCSP	Binary	17–25	✓	–	✓#
Saving Lives	Page et al 201947	Observational	To ascertain how DBS HIV kits compared with MT kits in this postal testing service	Female, male, trans	Median 26	✓	✓	–
Sexual Health London (SHL)	Day et al 202050	Observational	To report the rate of recent sexual assault disclosure among users of SHL, and identify the outcomes of their call-back discussions	Female, male, trans or non-binary	18–55	✓	✓	–
	Day et al 202143	Observational	To assess the sexual health needs, sexual practices, STI/HIV positivity and satisfaction rates of trans and non-binary users of Sexual Health London	Female, male, trans, non-binary/gender fluid	15–82	✓	–	–
	Day et al 202048	Observational	To report the safeguarding concerns and outcomes of those aged 16–17 years old accessing SHL	Female, male, trans or non-binary	16–17	✓	✓	–
	Day et al 202161	Observational	To identify the characteristics and transfer to care rates of those who have a reactive HIV test result via SHL	Binary	21–50	✓	✓	–
SH:24	Barnard et al 201832	Observational	To compare the characteristics of e-STI service users with clinic users, and OPSS kit returners with non-returners	Binary	16+	✓	✓	✓
	Barnard 2020 (Chapter 6)52	Qualitative interviews	To describe the experiences, barriers and facilitators of SH:24 in Lambeth and Southwark	Female, male, trans	16–30	✓	✓	–
	Syred et al 201937	Observational	To describe user choice of OPSS orders and diagnoses in a ‘choose to test’ intervention	Binary	16–24	✓	✓	✓
	Turner et al 201820	Observational	To investigate the effect of decision-making on resource allocation in a clinic after the introduction of an e-STI service in Lambeth and Southwark	Binary	16+	✓	✓	–
	Turner et al 201933	Observational and model generation	To establish cost-effectiveness of an OPSS service, and explore cost per diagnosis in different scenarios	–	–	–	–	–
	Wilson et al 201744	Experimental	To assess the effectiveness of an OPSS service compared with face-to-face services	Female, male, trans	16–30	✓	✓	–
	Wilson et al 201945	Secondary data analysis of experimental study	To examine the effect of an e-STI service on testing uptake on people who had never previously tested (never-testers)	Female, male, trans	16–30	✓	✓	–
TakeATestUK.com	Page et al 202141	Observational	To ascertain how DBS HIV and syphilis kits compared with MT kits in this postal testing service	Female, male, trans	Mean 27	✓	✓	–
Umbrella	Banerjee et al 201835	Observational	To evaluate the rates of uptake and return of OPSS kits and compare patient demographics and clinical outcomes in home and clinic testers	Female, male, trans	16+	✓	✓	–
	Banerjee et al 202036	Observational	To evaluate the uptake, return rate and new diagnosis rates of home-based testing in comparison with clinic-based testing for HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B	Female, male, trans	16+	✓	✓	–
	Manavi and Hodson 201746	Observational	To establish which factors influence return of OPSS kits	Female, male, trans	–	–	–	IMD rank

** Unstated, but reported as no difference between groups ^# Bracebridge et al. 2012 have labelled IMD quintile 1 as least deprived and IMD quintile 5 as most deprived in their paper. This may be an error and makes this data difficult to interpret. The corresponding author has been contacted for clarification.

DBS, dried blood sample; IMD, Index of Multiple Deprivation; MT, mini-test; OPSS, online postal self-sampling.